Mr. Mojo brings anti-bullying message to West Henderson

Motivational speaker Travis Brown, otherwise known as “Mr. Mojo,” had hundreds of West Henderson High students on their feet Friday afternoon as part of an anti-bullying presentation.

By NANCY TANKERTimes-News Staff Writer

Motivational speaker Travis Brown, otherwise known as “Mr. Mojo,” had hundreds of West Henderson High students on their feet Friday afternoon as part of an anti-bullying presentation he takes to schools around the country.His main message isn't “I won't bully,” but rather “If I see another student being bulled, I will step in to defend them,” or what he calls “Mojoing Up.”With the kids on their feet, Brown had them repeat after him in loud, clear voices, “I will step in! I will step up! I will be that student who makes a difference!”Once the students were seated, Brown continued his message. “You have the power to help people. You have the power to hurt people just by the words you use,” he said. “We are all different.” Bullies will pick on someone for being too tall or too short, how much or how little someone weighs, the clothes they wear, the team they play on, their financial situation, or just about any other “difference” the bully can zero in on. When a fellow students stands up for someone being bullied, it can make all the difference in that person's life, Brown said.“You can make a positive difference if you step in and Mojo up,” he said. Targets of bullies need that solidarity to know “they are OK and can make it.”“Every single day you are here, you can make a difference and have a positive impact,” Brown told the crowd of more than 500 students.He made two presentations over the course of the afternoon so that every student in the school had a chance to hear his message.“Sometimes we can take things too far” with a cruel comment or a “joke” about someone's appearance. When that happens, “it's time to Mojo up” to stop the negativity in its tracks, he said. “There are haters out there and they will talk about you, but you never lose your value, your worth, or who you are” because of someone else's unkind words, he added. “When you walk out of her today, I want you to walk out of her different than when you walked in. I want you to say, 'I might be crushed or crumpled today but I still have value. I still have worth.'”Brown told the students a personal story about his mother, who was teased because of her weight when she was a youngster. One day as she got on the school bus, there were several students who rang cow bells and mooed at her. Her sister, also on the bus, stayed silent. Brown's mother “just laughed” at her tormentors and tried to put the incident behind her, but the emotional scar was seared into her memory. Brown emphasized to students that “just because someone's laughing” doesn't mean they're not hurt by what's happening — “it's just a coping mechanism.”Sophomore Jerry Jervis knew exactly where Brown was coming from. In the past he has been bullied and “I just stayed quiet about it and laughed it off. Recently I've been working on it, but today I really needed to hear this speech, not just for myself but for other people.” Jervis said the main message he heard from Brown was “how little it takes for a situation to blow up, but how it just takes one person to Mojo Up” to put an end to bullying. Fellow sophomore Kealey McDaniels said she's also been bullied in the past and “I just ignored it.” She found Brown's presentation “inspirational.” The bullying that's taken place in her life “doesn't affect who I am, and I don't have to listen to it.”Senior Shannon Miller said she liked Brown's speech “a lot.” She felt that “a lot of anti-bullying messages are stereotypes, but (Brown) really connected with us.”Student Jimmy Gash felt the same way. “He was great,” the sophomore said of Brown. “He was really interactive and told some great stories.” Gash said he's never been bullied and has never witnessed bullying, but going forward, if he did, “I would stand up for the person getting bullied and tell the bully that it's not cool to be that way to other people.” Reach Tanker at 828-694-7871 or nancy.tanker@blueridgenow.com.